Changing Things Quotes

It's not easy to change things. Things fight back. ~ Marty Rubin

If the situation of a technological society was such that there could be no direct relation between a man's work and his modus vivendi, other than money, at least he must feel that he is directly changing things by his work, shaping things, making things that weren't there before, moving things from one place to another. He must exert energy in his work and see these changes occur with his own eyes. Otherwise he would feel his life was futile. ~ Samuel R. Delany

There is a strange duality in the human which makes for an ethical paradox. We have definitions of good qualities and of bad; not changing things, but generally considered good and bad throughout the ages and throughout the species. Of the good, we think always of wisdom, tolerance, kindliness, generosity, humility; and the qualities of cruelty, greed, self-interest, graspingness, and rapacity are universally considered undesirable. And yet in our structure of society, the so-called and considered good qualities are invariable concomitants of failure, while the bad ones are the cornerstones of success ... Perhaps no other animal is so torn between alternatives. Man might be described fairly adequately, if simply, as a two-legged paradox. ~ John Steinbeck

But O, sick children of the world,
Of all the many changing things
In dreary dancing past us whirled,
To the cracked tune that Chronos sings,
Words alone are certain good. ~ William Butler Yeats

I grew up before computers. Computers are changing things, not all for the good. ~ Graham Hawkes

Change isn't always good. Sometimes changing things is a terrible mistake. ~ Bob Barker

As soon as you start doing that - changing things - it seems self-evident to me that you've entered the world of make-believe. If you pretend that it's true, and use your own name, you are misleading people. Fiction is looser and wilder and sometimes in the end more self-revealing, anyway. ~ Nicholson Baker

It seems that many of us have the goal of making other people conform to our desires and expectations, whether or not we would admit to such a thing. We see this especially in parents who get upset because their children don't conform to their expectations, but instead follow a pattern of development that is unique and individual. We often use language with peers and colleagues that encourages them to change their ways of doing things to our ways of doing things: "You should" and "You ought to" are usually presented as advice, but in the end they really are about changing someone else's ways of doing things. And we may offer this "advice" in a spirit of love and helpfulness, but we can be much more helpful when we help them to find their own ways of changing things.

It can be incredibly freeing to spend an entire day not looking to try to change the behaviors, beliefs, or attitudes of other human beings. If we approach life in this way, we may learn much about the other people in our lives instead of trying to make them be like us. ~ Tom Walsh

There's this idea that somehow you've got to keep changing things, and as often as possible. Maybe if people just decided not to buy anything for a while, they'd get a chance to think about what they wanted; what they really liked. ~ Vivienne Westwood

It was as simple as that - they met. As simple as only beautiful things can be beautiful, as only life-changing things, turning-point things, can be simple.
("For The Rest Of Her Life") ~ Cornell Woolrich

Many a man thinks he is making something when he's only changing things around. ~ Zora Neale Hurston

See how everything is temporary, and wanting it to be permanent will only cause you to suffer. And then see how letting go of that wishing, and accepting the changing nature of things, and being unattached to each moment of those changing things, will help you to be calmer and happier. Embrace the non-attachment. Embrace the changing nature of things as beautiful. Accept the impermanence. ~ Leo Babauta

I'm not too fond of changing things into waltzes, but sometimes that works. ~ Marian McPartland

When people with power see things happen of which they disapprove, they drop bombs and send in tanks. When people without power see things happen of which they disapprove, they smash store windows, blow themselves up in crowded places, and fly planes into buildings. The fact that both methods have proved remarkably unsuccessful at changing things doesn't stop people from going on in the same way. ~ N. T. Wright

Write a lot. And I mean a ridiculous amount. You have to write so much that you don't mind throwing away and changing things that you've written - which is the second thing you have to do. A lot of young writers are very precious about their words. Don't be - you've got to be ready to burn stuff. You're not as good as you think you are, at least not yet. The more you write, the faster you'll write, and the less you'll mind throwing stuff out. ~ Josh Lieb

I kind of end up getting caught up in whatever the rhythm of the movie is and how open the director is to changing things in the moment or finding it in rehearsal. ~ Michael Cera

You wanna be remembered for making an impact and changing things. I guess for the good or for the bad, it don't matter. But I guess you just wanna be remembered when it's all said and done. ~ Ice Cube

Magazines and advertising are flogging the idea that you have to keep changing things and get something new. I think that's balls - evil. But obviously that's your livelihood. ~ Robin Day

Consensus isn't just about agreement. It's about changing things around: You get a proposal, you work something out, people foresee problems, you do creative synthesis. At the end of it, you come up with something that everyone thinks is okay. Most people like it, and nobody hates it. ~ David Graeber

The Song Of The Happy Shepherd

The woods of Arcady are dead,
And over is their antique joy;
Of old the world on dreaming fed;
Grey Truth is now her painted toy;
Yet still she turns her restless head:
But O, sick children of the world,
Of all the many changing things
In dreary dancing past us whirled,
To the cracked tune that Chronos sings,
Words alone are certain good.
Where are now the warring kings,
Word be-mockers? - By the Rood,
Where are now the watring kings?
An idle word is now their glory,
By the stammering schoolboy said,
Reading some entangled story:
The kings of the old time are dead;
The wandering earth herself may be
Only a sudden flaming word,
In clanging space a moment heard,
Troubling the endless reverie.
Then nowise worship dusty deeds,
Nor seek, for this is also sooth,
To hunger fiercely after truth,
Lest all thy toiling only breeds
New dreams, new dreams; there is no truth
Saving in thine own heart. Seek, then,
No learning from the starry men,
Who follow with the optic glass
The whirling ways of stars that pass -
Seek, then, for this is also sooth,
No word of theirs - the cold star-bane
Has cloven and rent their hearts in twain,
And dead is all their human truth.
Go gather by the humming sea
Some twisted, echo-harbouring shell.
And to its lips thy story tell,
And ~ W.B. Yeats

So they actually put it into their mission statement, and they start changing things as a result. They may change how worship works. They may actively recruit folks and try and get them to come and help them to feel comfortable and get them involved in leadership, and there's a variety of ways. ~ Michael Emerson

say that "prayer changes things" is not as close to the truth as saying, "Prayer changes me and then I change things." God has established things so that prayer, on the basis of redemption, changes the way a person looks at things. Prayer is not a matter of changing things externally, but one of working miracles in a person's inner nature. ~ Oswald Chambers

In a crisis, do not remain calm, do not look for the nearest exit, do not stick your head in the sand; do agitate, do make things worse, do run screaming through the street, and do refuse to return to business as usual. Business as usual is what created this mess in the first place. Business as usual has meant that businesspeople and corporate fat cats run/ruin the world and artists are out of luck; it has meant that education, spirituality, sexuality all must function on a business model and every attempt to make changes is greeted with a pragmatic question about whether changing things will also mean making money. Making money cannot be the goal of the new feminism. Putting women in positions of power is not what gaga feminism wants. What gaga feminism wants cannot be easily summarized, but it is not an independent bank account, not a profitable nonprofit; mama does not want a brand new bag. Mama wants revolution. ~ J. Jack Halberstam

I couldn't do the same job for 30 years. That would make me want to kill myself. Other people do it and they're very happy doing it, but for me, that's not what I want. I like changing things, all the time. ~ James Purefoy

I do have designers that I love to wear, like Philip Lim and Marc Jacobs whose stuff I know will look good on my body. But still, I always like to express myself by changing things up. ~ Rashida Jones

History is above all else an argument. It is an argument between different historians; and, perhaps, an argument between the past and the present, an argument between what actually happened, and what is going to happen next. Arguments are important; they create the possibility of changing things. ~ John H. Arnold

People ask me what my predictions are for publishing and how digital is changing things and I tell them my only real prediction is that is it's all changing. Amazon, Google and all of those things probably aren't the enemy. The enemy right now is simply refusing to understand that the world is changing. ~ Neil Gaiman

A lot of us don't get a sense of our personal power. I know the vast difference that one person can make in changing things. ~ Boots Riley

I was brought up in a family of leaders, and I think leadership is a life sentence. I like changing things that will shape the future. ~ Jenny Shipley

I want to change things with everything I do, not for the sake of changing things, but for the sake of taking greater and greater risks, or how minimalist I might be able to be, or how I can involve elements or ingredients in music videos that are not musical, for instance. ~ Jonathan Glazer

Even thought you can't see it, my son, things are changing. Things ALWAYS change, given enough time and pressure. The very thought of that is scary to some, but change is absolutely nothing to be afraid of. It is a simple fact of life. ~ EXO Books

The bigger we get, I think the more it's changing things, which is great, but we didn't set out to do that. We just wanted to be as big as we possibly could be. ~ Dan Hawkins

Forever is a long long time and time has a way of changing things ~ Walt Disney Company

We believe that we can change the things around us in accordance with our desires - we believe it because otherwise we can see no favourable outcome. We do not think of the outcome which generally comes to pass and is also favourable: we do not succeed in changing things in accordance with our desires, but gradually our desires change. The situation that we hoped to change because it was intolerable becomes unimportant to us. We have failed to surmount the obstacle, as we were absolutely determined to do, but life has taken us round it, led us beyond it, and then if we turn round to gaze into the distance of the past, we can barely see it, so imperceptible has it become. ~ Marcel Proust

If you are unhappy with your life and the state of the world, the best place to start changing things is within yourself. ~ Bryant McGill

I journaled: "Why do I feel like crap after being offered a book deal by one of the best publishers on the planet?" The answer that I came up with surprised me. I knew there were people who would have done anything to get their work out into the world this way. i knew there were people who had worked their butts off and still hadn't made it. I knew there were people who had amazing, life-changing things to say who didn't have the platforms to say it yet. I knew there were people who would have been doing cartwheels in the street if they were me right now. And I felt like because they wanted it more, they should have it instead of me. ~ Kate Northrup

I don't see it in terms of changing things, but rather using language and music as weapons for fighting a mainstream media which is predominately right wing, and loyal to the political framework and its corporate interests. ~ Thom Yorke

Almightiness consists much less in that which human beings imagine it to be, namely, changing things in accordance with one's own will - Jesus proved, through his miracles, that he could do that, too - than in exerting an influence on the freedom of human hearts without overpowering them. Enticing forth from them, through the mysterious power of grace, their free assent to the truly good. ~ Hans Urs Von Balthasar

We start with our consumers and spend an exorbitant amount of time talking with them, trying to figure out what's driving them, finding out where they are and how they're changing things. ~ Cathy O'Brien

With Corpse Bride, I saw a lot more of it during the process because we were changing things a lot. When I came onto Corpse Bride, it wasn't a musical. ~ John August

The dubbing of the music and effects is really incredible today. You're feeling gun shots. I mean, it's not the way people say it is, but the gunshot sounds real. And cars sound real. Among the many things in the evolution (of movies) is to make the sound in the movie incredible. That's what you feel. ~ Joel Silver

Perhaps the most fundamental value of a liberal education is that it makes life more interesting. It allows you to think things which do not occur to the less learned ... it makes it less likely that you will be bored with life. ~ Kingman Brewster, Jr.

One of the great things about an open system like Android is it addresses all ends of the spectrum. Getting great low-cost computing devices at scale to the developing world is especially meaningful to me. ~ Sundar Pichai

Speak to me heart,
All things renew.
Hearts will mend,
Round the bend.
Paths that cross
Cross again,
Paths that cross
Will cross again.

- Paths that Cross ~ Patti Smith

One might be led to suspect that there were all sorts of things going on in the universe which he or she did not thoroughly understand. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

Get your story written, you always have the second and third draft to fix things like tense, 1st vs 3rd person, the exact right word, etc. ~ Andromeda Edison

(remember, I was pregnant once, and I'm on TV: Those two things combined make me an expert) ~ Tina Fey

You bite off more than you can chew, 'course you're going to choke. One bite at a time. And that goes for thinking things, too, not just food. ~ Margaret Peterson Haddix

Time makes things worse. Bad is faster than good. Wickedness is a weed and does not wither on its own. It grows and spreads. ~ Ben H. Winters

First things that a hurting person needs to do is break the habit of using other people as a narcotic to numb the dull aching of an inner void. ~ T.D. Jakes

Your walk with God does not depend on people, places, things or events. ~ Henry R Brandt

Many are the things that man seeing must understand. Not seeing, how shall he know what lies in the hand of time to come? ~ Sophocles

Surely the Shadowhunter community must honor you and hold you in high esteem as a gentleman who has truly advanced their race. No, Henry said sadly. Mostly they wish that I would stop suggesting new inventions and cease setting fire to things. ~ Cassandra Clare

Magnus had come to a horrible realization. One that he knew would cause him nothing but pain and suffering from that day forward.
But there was no changing the truth of it.
He had fallen in love with her. ~ Morgan Rhodes

The thing about optimism is that it's not optimism unless things are kind of bad! Otherwise you're just a realist. ~ Annie Clarke (St. Vincent)

Simply having rules does not change the things that people want to do. You have to change incentives. ~ Jimmy Wales

Every woman has a line in their relationship. It may be imaginary, but it's there. Every woman's line is different. Some actions may weigh heavier on one person than another, but in the end it's all the same. Cross that line and the consequences can be life changing and devastating. It's the type of line that once you cross it, you can never go back. ~ Courtney Giardina

The English know how to make the best of things. Their so-called muddling through is simply skill at dealing with the inevitable. ~ Winston Churchill

It's fun to read things when you don't know all the words. Even children love it ... they come up against weird words, and the weird words excite them. ~ Salman Rushdie

A happy mood loosens the control of System 2 over performance: when in a good mood, people become more intuitive and more creative but also less vigilant and more prone to logical errors. Here again, as in the mere exposure effect, the connection makes biological sense. A good mood is a signal that things are generally going well, the environment is safe, and it is all right to let one's guard down. A bad mood indicates that things are not going very well, there may be a threat, and vigilance is required. ~ Daniel Kahneman

Invitation to Eternity

Say, wilt thou go with me, sweet maid,
Say, maiden, wilt thou go with me
Through the valley-depths of shade,
Of bright and dark obscurity;
Where the path has lost its way,
Where the sun forgets the day,
Where there's nor light nor life to see,
Sweet maiden, wilt thou go with me?

Where stones will turn to flooding streams,
Where plains will rise like ocean's waves,
Where life will fade like visioned dreams
And darkness darken into caves,
Say, maiden, wilt thou go with me
Through this sad non-identity
Where parents live and are forgot,
And sisters live and know us not?

Say, maiden, wilt thou go with me
In this strange death of life to be,
To live in death and be the same,
Without this life or home or name,
At once to be and not to be -
That was and is not - yet to see
Things pass like shadows, and the sky
Above, below, around us lie?

The land of shadows wilt thou trace,
Nor look nor know each other's face;
The present marred with reason gone,
And past and present both as one?
Say, maiden, can thy life be led
To join the living and the dead?
Then trace thy footsteps on with me:
We are wed to one eternity. ~ John Clare

Ridiculous, tiny things that, when added together, were bigger than life itself. ~ Samantha Hayes

We used to be a nation that celebrated people who got things done. Now we celebrate people who stop things getting done. ~ George F. Will

Keep clearly in mind the following truth: the things we keep foremost in our mind get our attention, and whatever gets our attention, gets done! ~ Josh Hinds

When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command. Very often, that individual is crazy. ~ Dave Barry

That is my problem with life, I rush through it, like I'm being chased. Even things whose whole point is slowness, like drinking relaxing tea. When I drink relaxing tea I suck it down as if I'm in a contest for who can drink relaxing tea the quickest. ~ Miranda July

She was a woman who made mistakes, who sometimes cried on a Monday morning or at night alone in bed. She was a woman who often became bored with her life and found it hard to get up for work in the morning. She was a woman who more often than not had a bad hair day, who looked in the mirror and wondered why she couldn't just drag herself to the gym more often; she was a woman who sometimes questioned what reason had she to live on this planet. She was a woman who sometimes just got things wrong.
On the other hand, she was a woman with a million happy memories, who knew what it was like to experience true love and who was ready to experience more life, more love and make new memories. ~ Cecelia Ahern

The most important lesson he taught me was that there was no one singular perspective on things or emotions in the universe - no one way of comprehending truth. ~ Anchee Min

It's hard to reconcile my personal beliefs with an entire institution like the Church or the Republicans. Or with people within those political persuasions who have such different ideologies but confess the same things I confess spiritually. ~ Sufjan Stevens

Don't worry about things that you have no control over, because you have no control over them. Don't worry about things that you have control over, because you have control over them. ~ Mickey Rivers

In the Babemba tribe of South Africa, when a person acts irresponsibly or unjustly, he is placed in the center of the village, alone and unfettered. All work ceases, and every man, woman, and child in the village gathers in a large circle around the accused individual. Then each person in the tribe speaks to the accused, one at a time, each recalling the good things the person in the center of the circle has done in his lifetime. Every incident, every experience that can be recalled with any detail and accuracy, is recounted. All his positive attributes, good deeds, strengths, and kindnesses are recited carefully and at length. This tribal ceremony often lasts for several days. At the end, the tribal circle is broken, a joyous celebration takes place, and the person is symbolically and literally welcomed back into the tribe. ~ Jack Kornfield

I don't think that those things [so called common practice] ever truly existed in the way that we like to believe that they do, the way we learn about them in music history class. Those things are defined at least decades after they happen. And even then, it's a fallacy because when you're in the moment, when you're in a thriving scene of musicians, inevitably everyone is going to be doing something completely different from everyone else ~ Missy Mazzoli

I believe that they who wish to do easy things without trouble and toil must previously have been trained in more difficult things, ~ Joshua Foer

I like murder mysteries, the Agatha Christie kinds of things where you know that it's all going to be neatly wound up at the end. ~ Stephen Sondheim

Things are not as they seem. You do not understand. There is no escape. This is all there is. I had never seen eyes filled with so much sadness. ~ A.B. Shepherd

Well, pioneers always suffer. I don't care who is the first to embark upon things. For instance, settlers that settled the West, Western Canada and the U.S ... they went though hell doing it, but it had to be done. ~ Bobby Hull

An entrepreneur isn't someone who owns a business, it's someone who makes things happen. ~ Tim Ferriss